Walldogs beer tent on city property? City Council has some concerns

The Walldogs committee wants to have a beer garden downtown on one of the July evenings when some 170 visiting artists will be in Kewanee.

The issue: The proposed site is the former City Hall location at 200 W. Third St., which is city-owned property.

Dianne Packee, co-chair of the Walldogs committee, told the council they would like to set up an 80- by 40-foot beer tent on the evening of Friday, July 12. The Kewanee Veterans Council would staff the beer tent, she said.

Councilman Mike Yaklich pointed out that there could be an issue with selling alcohol on public property. Last year, when a fund-raiser for the animal shelters was held on the city parking lot in the 200 block of West Second Street, the beer sales had to be on nearby private property.

Allowing a beer tent on the former City Hall site could set a bad precedent, Yaklich suggested.

“I don’t care if we’re setting a precedent,” Councilman Bob Kuntz, who is also a Walldogs committee member, said. Kuntz said he’d like to give permission to have the beer tent.

The council is to decide the matter at a meeting in March.

Mrs. Packee told the council she is still looking for 36 local homes where some of the Walldogs could spend the nights while they’re in town.

Rooms would be needed for Wednesday through Saturday nights of Walldogs Week. Anyone who would like to volunteer the use of their home can contact Mrs. Packee at Reiman’s Harley-Davidson.

Also Monday, the council amended the city ordinance on recycling to allow residents to use clear plastic bags, as well as blue bags, for putting recyclables at the curb for city pickup.

Councilman Duane Gillespie had asked for the change, saying he had heard from constituents that there sometimes are shortages of the blue bags in local stores.

City officials had expressed concern that it might be difficult for the employee who picks up the recyclables to tell which bags have recyclables inside, and which have garbage. Using clear bags should solve that problem.

Also on the agenda was an ordinance to allow tavern owners to pro-rate their payments for the city fee for the new video gaming terminals, since the terminals will be in place for only a portion of the city fiscal year.

Kuntz suggested that the council eliminate the $25-per-machine fee altogether, as a way to help out local businesses. The council agreed to do so, and to either refund any license fees already paid or apply the payments to next year’s city liquor license for the establishment.

The council also approved a $333,000 appropriation for this year’s Motor Fuel Tax street program, and gave Ameren Illinois permission to drill monitoring wells and bore holes as part of a study to see if cleanup is necessary on the former city gas plant that is now the Ameren substation in the 500 block of North Main Street.